The 33-year-old, who signed a deal to the end of the season back in August, hinted that he’d like to remain at the club beyond the expiration of his current contract following Burnley’s 2-0 win over Rotherham United on home soil.

“I spoke to the gaffer about it,” he said. “We had a conversation last week and he knows exactly where I stand on the contract situation.

“Nothing changes for me. In the next few weeks or months if they want me to stay, the gaffer knows my feelings on it.

“We spoke very briefly, we had half an hour in his office at the training ground, and it was just sounding out each other.

“It was ‘what are you thinking, what am I thinking’ and our ducks are in the same line and we’re both thinking the same thing so that should naturally progress.”

But the former Manchester City man confessed that there are more pressing matters to attend to after the Clarets broke in to the Championship’s top two at Middlesbrough’s expense.

And he doesn’t want any distractions between now and the final game of the season against Charlton Athletic at the Valley on May 7th.

“There are bigger things for us. My aim regardless of what happens next year was to help this club mount a promotion challenge and win the title.

“I’m enjoying my football. For me there’s been nothing but positivity around this football club since I joined.

“I think I’ve fitted in with the group and the team and I’m really enjoying my football so long may it continue.

“But it changes nothing for me. The focus is to get promoted and whether you’re here next year or not my goal walking into the football club was to achieve that, and I still feel we’re right on track for that.”

Meanwhile, Barton insists the club’s ability to find different ways to win games will serve them well in their promotion push.

After the battling display against the Millers, he said: “In my time at this football club we’ve only grown stronger as a team.

“Everything that we needed to do to progress as a team and a club I feel that that’s happened.

“You feel that everything is geared towards improvement and I think over the course of a season - from August to today, we’re a team that’s progressing.

“To win the title or to win promotion you have to do many different things and some days you’ve got to play football, some days you’ve got to defend for your lives, some days you’ve got to match the physical strengths of other teams.

“In the last few weeks we’ve shown we’ve got everything you need for whatever the occasion calls for. We’ve shown we can win in many different ways.”